PEORIA, Ill.—A former CEO who said he acted only to help members, Charles Juska, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for fraudulent loan practices that cost the business more than a half-million dollars.
Last May Juska, who formerly led Tazewell County School Employees CU, was found guilty of 11 counts of bank fraud, misapplication of credit union funds and false entry to credit union records. He was acquitted on seven charges.
The Pekin Daily Times reported that U.S. District Judge James Shadid said Juska is not "a bad man" and didn't profit from his crimes, adding that since the credit union's board of directors suspected his activities for at least two years, "Some of this could've been headed off."
That's in part why Shadid handed Juska about half of the minimum punishment that federal sentence guidelines called for in his case, the Times reported.
The Times noted that Shadid said Juska will go to prison, however, "because Americans have lost faith in many of the institutions" in which they entrust their savings, and those who abuse that faith must be punished.
Juska’s defense attorney said his client committed the crimes because he "thought of himself as the rule keeper who could make his own" over the last five of the 17 years he served as president of the CU, the Times reported.
Juska’s crimes took place between 2005 and 2010. Over the five-year period involved, Juska fraudulently issued and extended loans and covered members defaults by opening loans in other members’ names without their knowledge. He concealed delinquent loans from the credit union’s board and regulators, according to investigators
Juska was fired in 2010 and indicted in 2014.